classic albums, atsonicpark edition # 5: mr. bungle - disco volante
 

MR. BUNGLE, "DISCO VOLANTE"
1995, Warner Brothers Records
1. "Everyone I Went To High School With Is Dead"
2. "Chemical Marriage"
3. "Sleep (Part II): Carry Stress In The Jaw"
4. "Desert Search For Techno Allah"
5. "Violenza Domestica"
6. "After School Special"
7. "Sleep (Part III): Phlegmatics"
8. "Ma Meeshka Mow Skwoz"
9. "The Bends"
10. "Backstrokin'"
11. "Platypus"
12. "Merry Go Bye Bye

For whatever reason, my friend Mike (a raver but also a big Slipknot fan...) had a copy of Mr. Bungle's self-titled album, which he had apparently acquired at a rave. He knew I was into... uhm... "different" music, so he gave it to me one day. He said, "It's fucked up. It's insane." So, I listened to it, expecting my 13-year-old mind to be blown. But it wasn't! Listening today with different ears, it's still a good enough CD, but there's a bit too much funk on it, and the production is irritating.

Around the same time, California had just come out and I read in some magazine called Request (which you used to be able to get free at Sam Goody's) . They had given it a 12 out of 100 and described it as "horrible"; "the worst songwriting ever". I downloaded it on IRC through a bot (on 28k modem !), and it blew my mind. Amazing! I remember I went to school and we didn't have two phone lines, so I downloaded it from a bot from like 7 in the morning until whenever I got out of school. My grandma was wondering why no one had called all day long, hahaha...

So, years passed by, and for whatever reason I never heard "Disco Volante". I hadn't read about it, I knew nothing about it! My friend Brandon is talking to me about Mr. Bungle one day and I told him I thought self-titled was okay, but "California" blew my mind. He said, "Oh, have you heard 'Disco Volante'? You might like it. It's a bit weirder than those two albums.." I said, "No... burn me a copy." Well, it took him a while to burn me a copy, but I remember being excited to hear it and I remember talking to a few people about it, and I remember someone saying that there were covers of cartoon songs on it (?!??!?) and someone else told me that it sounded like a band who couldn't play their instruments who were trying to mix every genre every together. Either way, however it was described and whatever I read about it (I remember NME gave it a 0 and called it the worst album of all time -- but they thought the strokes were the greatest band in the history of existence, so..), it didn't sound like it was the same band as the self-titled or "California" Mr. Bungle.

So, I finally acquired a burnt copy... and WOW. WOW. One of those albums I put on repeat for days and days and days. I still listen to it. I wore out my burnt copy and somehow found a used copy for $3 at a local pawn shop a few weeks after my burnt copy skipped through every track.

This ... I dunno. Impossible to describe. Every genre of music ever piled on top of each other. Yeah. The most skilled "rock" (?) musicians imaginable playing extremely well-written and wonderful music. Trey Spruance is without a shadow of a doubt one of the best guitar players ever, and by far the best guitar player that no one ever talks about. Trevor Dunn's bass work is UNBELIEVABLE, and the other musicians whose names I don't feel like looking up do a very good job but... the star of this album is definitely Trey. Oh, and Patton does okay work, not that he does much on this album (he only wrote one song, "Backstrokin", and he only wrote lyrics to a few songs). Speaking of lyrics, what really struck me at the time was how few there were. Can't say that about the other Bungle albums.

Just.. seriously, amazing music. Obviously, there were probably a million overdubs, but the actual individual parts that were played in each song are amazing.

Standsout include "Ma Meeshka Mow Skowz" which really does sound like cartoon cover songs; "Merry Go Bye-Bye", which is a Beach Boys death metal noise song; and "Chemical Marriage" which sounds like a song Danny Elfman would write if he had big balls.

Probably my second favorite album ever. Endlessly inspiring. One of those albums I really can tell you every single lyric and every part of every song without even thinking about it. I've memorized this album. And yet I could still put it on today and not be bored with it. I can't complain about any of it, except it probably needs to be re-released with the volume bumped up a bit (it's ridiculously quiet), and "The Bends" maybe goes on a bit too long. An interesting thing to note is that the self-titled Mr. Bungle album has tons and tons of filler in between tracks, but this album is devoid of them, except for a few short jokes (and what's there is quite creepy: "Why are you touching me?").

To this day, I don't think "Everyone I went to high school with is dead" is anything too special, but I think it's such a perfect way to open an album: the most noisey and worst song to open one of the best albums ever. It's like if "Doolittle" opened with "Silver" or something.

This album is simultaneously mindblowingly complex, dark, humorous, sad ("Violenza Domestica" is one of the most powerfully emotive tracks ever), thought-provoking, inspiring, and touching. One of my friends only listens to Mozart, Beethoven, etc. and generally has very little tolerance for any of the music I like, but he can get into this (and similiar bands, like Secret Chiefs, Vicious Hairy Mary, Darth Vegas, etc). Weird, eh? I'd definitely reccomend this for just fans of good music, not just "avant-garde fans". That being said, I don't think this album is particularly "Avant-garde" at all, it's not "Adult Themes for Voice" or anything. It's just well-played, competent, innovative, technically impressive music.

Too bad Bungle's dead, but as a whole Secret Chiefs 3 is probably better anyway (though they haven't made an album this good).

Possibly the least interesting album I've ever heard. And I've heard 2 Lighthouse Family records.

The twat said it.

You have worms in your testes.

I love you. Here's for you:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=modA9aa_ihA


Always loved this version of it.

I have california.
It's all I've heard.

i recently discovered it because, matter of fact, i hated mr. bungle.

i remember i heard a song by them that was completely schizophrenic and awesome back in the day and i got curious about them, then i heard the first record and i was disappointed that most of it was horrid ska songs or something like that. years later, i gave california a pssing listen and was not amused or impressed, in fact i barely remember any of their songs.

moreover, the idea of mr. bungle is the most unoriginal thing mike patton haas been involved besides fantomas, since the whole concept is a rip off of naked city. mr. bungle used to be a death metal band with a few odd, humorous touches here and there when they started, patton had never heard anything really off the wall to that point; now, john zorn devised naked city to play any style of music at any given time, jumping schizophrenically from one another to make the effect of cartoon soundtracks, furthermore, for the first album, they invited yamatsuka eye to sing in his own anarchic singing style in a couple of their songs. this was in the year mike patton was rapping over pseudo metal riffs.

still, i recently gave a listen to disco volante out of curiousity, since it's the only one of them i haven't listened and i LOVE IT!!!! why? probably because of the songwriting, they are amazing at writing incredibly accomplished songs that can integrate so many styles of music, something their alma paters naked city could never do (they couldn't fuse two or more styles in the same song, something that made them succeed)...anyway, adam expressed it so much better than me since he has listened to it more times.

amazing arrangements, amazing songs, obviously the weakest link here is mike patton and the music is still made around this weakness to make it work for them.

odd thing is, most patton fans qualify this album as "almost unlistenable", i can't imagine what would they think have they listen to pop tatari or soul discharge.

i'll re-listen to the other albums, but i think disco volante is a one of a kind albums.

I dig this record. And I love 'California'.

I saw Tomahawk a while ago and they pretty nuts. They opened for Tool and Mike Patton was making fun of all the lame-ass Tool fans and he was getting shit thrown at him. It was fucking awesome.

Yes, you finally did this atsonicpark. Good job, and fantastic album.
Oh, and if NME gave this 0, calling it "the worst album ever" they obviously don't have an open enough mind to be a music magazine.

Oh wait, it's NME.

Dude: not only are you far more articulate than most people for whom English is their sole language; not only are you capable of expressing yourself about 50 million times better than the rest of the internet; not only do you have an utterly ridiculous taste in music [nb - compliment]; not only are you capable of listening to [what seems like] an utterly absurd torrent of music on a daily basis - on top of all this you've actually made me want to go back and listen to a record that is in my top 1 least interesting records ever (again, I've heard 2 Lighthouse Family records).

Wow. She's a total mental, isnt' she?

i cant stand mr bungle. dont know wha th deal is at all. i have one of their albums and it sucked. no intrest at all............

^That, plus, it's shit.

Which one?

don't understand how people can dislike a band so musically accomplished.

on that note, i've never heard anyone say anything bad about secret chiefs 3, so you all should check them out even if you don't like bungle.

I agree. Though i'm not too surprised. People don't like anything on a major label here at www.sonicyouth.com/gossip

OH the irony!!

Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Eddie Van Halen. All phenomenally talented. All utterly shit. I think the drummer from Mr Bungle, or possibly Fantomas, is Jascha Heifetz's son or grandson. Which is to say - good genes, shit drummer.

heheh, but they're not only musically accomplished, they write great songs, they don't just jerk off like the people you listed...

oh well.

haha i was at that show too. at hsbc arena in buffalo right? such a great show between the tomahawk killer opening set and tool ragging on green jello because members were from buffalo....

I like California better.
I also saw tomahawk open for tool in chicago and patton was ripping on michael jordan it made the boos became much more violent.

Fuck this boring band.

if you find this band boring, holy shit, i want to know what you find interesting.. my god!

timtimtim: i never understood that.

i live in indiana.. go ahead and insult reggie miller or .. that guy from the colts.. who gives a shit? why does anyone get pissed when you insult a local sports hero? fuck, i'll insult michael jordan all day. he was a good basketball player, but he has like BILLIONS of dollars.... because he knows how to play basketball.. people risking their lives and actually contributing something to society every day... but this buffoon knows how to play basketball so he gets more money than god.. fuck that guy.. and the guys who pay him that much..

I'm usually sick of Mike Patton, just because he feels gimmicky.

But in reality he's quite talented, and so are the rest of Bungle. I adore this album, on the right occasion. Violenza Domestica or whatever is a fantastic visual of a wacky wife-smucking mexican musical, and after school special is a classic.

A song like "Desert search for techno allah", however, leaves me kinda torn. On the one hand it kicks in with an amazing bass thing that cracks my head open, but the rest of it doesn't live up.

"Merry go bye bye" is pretty fantastic.

disco volante might be overbloated, probably atonal, probably too much for many people but it's not boring.

faith no more are boring, peeping tom is boring, delirium cordia is boring, whatever shit ass album he did with bjork is boring and pretentious...hell, even maldoror is boring; but not disco volante.

yeah, i pretty much find maldoror/tomahawk/faith no more/fantomas/peeping/lovage/weird little boy (yes, even weird little boy) and most other patton projects extremely overrated and/or boring.. tomahawk, you have the duane from jesus lizard, and it's still not very good! fantomas has some cool concepts, but their albums usually suck a bone (even if some of their stuff reminds me of early boredoms).

that's why i always say.. patton is the worst member of his own bands.. and patton kinda sucks, he just surrounds himself by talented musicians. trey spruance is the real talent in bungle (and, again, why i say to check out secret chiefs 3 which is admittingly 1000x better than bungle -- except for disco volante). i mean, seriously, why don't more people talk about this guy? EASILY in the top 10 guitarists alive.

i felt tempted to put tomahawk in there but didn't because a) the first one is really boring but mit gas is pretty awesome, although it's not spectacular. b) i haven't heard the new one yet except for two songs but i don't think it will fair good since kevin rutmanis left and c) because patton has said many times that tomahawk are duane denison's band, so not really counting.

fantomas mostly blows two, it's mostly a couple of songs/moments that are amazing and a whole lotta ok-ness. still, fantomas are the best supergroup ever without resorting to flashy players; for that reason only, it's judged differently. and also, fantomas is an even bigger rip off conceptually of naked city than bungle.

so both fantomas and tomahawk kinda balance themselves out, not like "boom chaka boom chaka booga booga boo, dede dede dedededede/YOOOOOOO-WAAAN-et al-But you can't Haeve it"

yeah, i forgot lovage is also very boring.

i bought Disco Volante today because of this thread.

excellent choice my friend.

if you dig it and you want to buy another cd i reccomend, i am selling the last 15 copies of scissor shock's "the mars travolta" currently :)

Do you ship to Australia?

Disco Volante is the best Patton album made so far and one of the best albums ever! First time I heard this album (it was maybe summer 1996, a friend had bought it from London) I was totally confused. I really hadn't heard anything like this and I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. There was couple of songs I liked immediately (Chemical Marriage, Desert Search For Techno Allah) but the music was so odd I couldn't understand it. Something there was, 'cause it made me borrow the album and forced me to listen to it over and over again. Then I bought the album and Mr. Bungle's debut from record store, and since the band has been one of my all time favorites. Later I found the music of John Zorn, but that's whole different story...